Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma — Article 11 of 20
The Centres of the Body (II) and the Mirror of Pure Knowledge
Nāmas 499–552 · Ślokas 103–112
ॐ श्रीमात्रे नमः · oṃ śrīmātre namaḥ
The tour through the inner centres continues, and then the hymn turns to the pure mirror in which awareness sees itself. Knowledge here is not information; it is the Self knowing the Self.
Part XIV — Nāmas 459–541 (Ślokas 96–110): The Seven Yoginīs of the Cakras
In simple words. A guided tour of the energy centres (cakras) of the body. At each centre lives a Yoginī — a goddess-power — with her own colour, faces and offerings. The body is a temple of seven floors, and the Mother lives on every floor.
(Part XIV began in Article 10; the names below continue it.)
Śloka 103
रक्तवर्णा मांसनिष्ठा गुडान्न-प्रीत-मानसा ।
समस्तभक्त-सुखदा लाकिन्यम्बा-स्वरूपिणी ॥ १०३॥
rakta-varṇā māṃsa-niṣṭhā guḍānna-prīta-mānasā |
samasta-bhakta-sukhadā lākinyambā-svarūpiṇī ǁ 103 ǁ
499. रक्तवर्णा — Rakta-varṇā
Translation: Of red (rakta) colour.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is red — the bright red of fire. The apavāda: fitting the fire-centre, her hue is the red of flame (recall Aruṇā, Ārakta-varṇā at the throat); the colour of the burning, transforming power at the navel. The hue marks the quality of this level: fiery transformation.
Śrī Vidyā: Rakta-varṇā is of red hue; the meditative colour of the Lākinī-Yoginī at the Maṇipūra, the red of the fire-centre.
500. मांसनिष्ठा — Māṃsa-niṣṭhā
Translation: Established in the flesh (māṃsa) — governs the muscular tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the māṃsa, the flesh — the third tissue. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the fire-centre presides over the flesh, the body's substance that fire (digestion) builds and sustains; the Goddess is present in the very flesh (recall skin, blood) — pervading the muscular body as fully as the subtle. She abides in the flesh, the solid substance of the embodied being. The teaching repeats: she is no less in the gross than in the subtle.
Śrī Vidyā: Māṃsa-niṣṭhā presides over the flesh (the third dhātu); the Lākinī governing the muscular tissue, the Goddess in the body's flesh.
501. गुडान्नप्रीतमानसा — Guḍānna-prīta-mānasā
Translation: Whose heart delights in guḍānna (jaggery-sweetened rice).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her heart delights in guḍānna, rice sweetened with jaggery. The apavāda, as with the foods before: the offering marks the savour of devotion at the fire-centre; the sweet jaggery-rice is the sweetness of the heart's offering at this level. What gladdens her is the devotion offered there.
Śrī Vidyā: Guḍānna-prīta-mānasā delights in jaggery-rice; the offering-food of the Lākinī at the Maṇipūra.
502. समस्तभक्तसुखदा — Samasta-bhakta-sukhadā
Translation: The giver of happiness to all (samasta) her devotees.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She gives joy to all her devotees, without exception. The apavāda: at the fire-centre — the place of vitality and power — she is the giver of joy to every devotee (recall Sukha-pradā, Samasta the “all”); the joy she gives is the warmth of her presence, denied to none who turn to her. The fire that transforms is also the warmth that gladdens all. (Set in the midst of the fierce Yoginī-iconography, this gentle name reminds that the fierce form is wholly for the devotee's joy.)
Śrī Vidyā: Samasta-bhakta-sukhadā gives joy to all devotees; the Lākinī's grace, the warmth of the fire-centre gladdening every devotee.
503. लाकिन्यम्बास्वरूपिणी — Lākinyambā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Who is of the very form of Mother Lākinī (presiding at the Maṇipūra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The third Yoginī named: she is Lākinī, presiding power of the Maṇipūra. The apavāda: as before, Lākinī is the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the fire-centre — “Lākinyambā-svarūpiṇī” gathers the navel-section's details into the single presiding Mother. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the navel-fire.
Śrī Vidyā: Lākinyambā-svarūpiṇī is the Goddess as Mother Lākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Maṇipūra; the third of the seven, the one Śakti in her fire-centre form.
Śloka 104
स्वाधिष्ठानाम्बुज-गता चतुर्वक्त्र-मनोहरा ।
शूलाद्यायुध-सम्पन्ना पीतवर्णाऽतिगर्विता ॥ १०४॥
svādhiṣṭhānāmbuja-gatā catur-vaktra-manoharā |
śūlādyāyudha-sampannā pīta-varṇā'tigarvitā ǁ 104 ǁ
The procession comes to the Svādhiṣṭhāna, the centre at the root of the genitals, the place of water, where the Goddess presides as Kākinī. Four-faced and lovely, armed with the trident and other weapons, golden-hued and high in pride; and (in the next śloka) abiding in the fat-tissue, fond of honeyed rice, surrounded by the śaktis Bandhinī and the rest.
504. स्वाधिष्ठानाम्बुजगता — Svādhiṣṭhānāmbuja-gatā
Translation: Who is present in the Svādhiṣṭhāna lotus.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Svādhiṣṭhāna — the centre at the root, the seat of water. The apavāda: the Svādhiṣṭhāna is the centre of the water-element, of taste and of the flowing; she dwells there as the ruling awareness of this level. The fourth station: the Goddess at the water-centre. (The name sva-adhiṣṭhāna, “her own abode,” fits — every centre is her own dwelling.)
Śrī Vidyā: Svādhiṣṭhānāmbuja-gatā resides in the Svādhiṣṭhāna cakra, the six-petalled centre of water; presided by Kākinī.
505. चतुर्वक्त्रमनोहरा — Catur-vaktra-manoharā
Translation: Lovely, with four faces (catur-vaktra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is four-faced here, and lovely (manoharā, “mind-stealing”). The apavāda: the faces continue to multiply (now four) — and the name adds that she is, with all her faces, beautiful; even in the fierce Yoginī-form the loveliness of the Goddess shows through. The four faces, like Brahmā's, may mark the four directions or the fourfold; the articulation widens, and remains beautiful.
Śrī Vidyā: Catur-vaktra-manoharā is four-faced and lovely; the Kākinī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna, four-faced, beautiful even in her fierce form.
506. शूलाद्यायुधसम्पन्ना — Śūlādyāyudha-sampannā
Translation: Furnished with the trident (śūla) and other weapons.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the śūla, the trident, and other weapons. The apavāda: the trident is Śiva's own weapon, the three-pronged power (of the three guṇas, three times, three states pierced through); at this centre her arms are the trident and the rest, the instruments of dissolution proper to the water-level. The weapons are, as ever, the powers that cut away bondage.
Śrī Vidyā: Śūlādyāyudha-sampannā is armed with the trident and other weapons; the Kākinī's arms at the Svādhiṣṭhāna, bearing Śiva's trident.
507. पीतवर्णा — Pīta-varṇā
Translation: Pīta-varṇā — golden-yellow of hue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is golden-yellow. The apavāda: the hue of this centre is gold — the warm yellow of the Svādhiṣṭhāna; each Yoginī has her colour (red, dark, red, and here gold), the meditative hue marking the quality of the level. The gold of the Goddess at the water-centre.
Śrī Vidyā: Pīta-varṇā is golden-yellow; the meditative colour of the Kākinī-Yoginī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna.
508. अतिगर्विता — Atigarvitā
Translation: Atigarvitā — exceedingly “proud” (in the sense of majestic self-assurance).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “exceedingly proud.” The apavāda: her garva is not the ego's vanity (which she is ever beyond — Nirmadā) but the majestic self-assurance of the supreme — the rightful “pride” of the sovereign who knows herself as all (recall the rapture-mada). It is the dignity of the Goddess, the confidence of the one without a second, not the swelling of a separate self.
Śrī Vidyā: Atigarvitā is exceedingly proud; the Kākinī's majestic self-assurance at the Svādhiṣṭhāna — the dignity of the supreme, not the ego's vanity.
Śloka 105
मेदोनिष्ठा मधुप्रीता बन्धिन्यादि-समन्विता ।
दध्यन्नासक्त-हृदया काकिनी-रूप-धारिणी ॥ १०५॥
medo-niṣṭhā madhu-prītā bandhinyādi-samanvitā |
dadhyannāsakta-hṛdayā kākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī ǁ 105 ǁ
509. मेदोनिष्ठा — Medo-niṣṭhā
Translation: Established in the fat (medas) — governs the adipose tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the medas, the fat — the fourth tissue. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the water-centre presides over the fat, the body's unctuous, watery substance; the Goddess is present in the very fat (recall skin, blood, flesh) — pervading even this tissue. The teaching is unwavering: there is no part of the embodied being, however gross, that is not she.
Śrī Vidyā: Medo-niṣṭhā presides over the fat (the fourth dhātu); the Kākinī governing the adipose tissue.
510. मधुप्रीता — Madhu-prītā
Translation: Fond of madhu (honey / sweet mead).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is fond of madhu — honey, the sweet. The apavāda, as with the foods and the kādambarī before: the sweet is the savour of bliss; her fondness for honey is awareness's delight in its own sweetness (recall Kādambarī-priyā, the nectar of bliss). The “honey” she loves is, inwardly, the sweetness of the Self. (Read as offering, not literal intoxicant.)
Śrī Vidyā: Madhu-prītā is fond of honey; the offering-sweet of the Kākinī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna, and a figure for the sweetness of bliss.
511. बन्धिन्यादिसमन्विता — Bandhinyādi-samanvitā
Translation: Accompanied by the śaktis Bandhinī and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is accompanied by the śaktis Bandhinī and the others of the water-cakra's band. The apavāda: the attendant powers here are the six śaktis of the Svādhiṣṭhāna's six petals; her own energies arrayed about her at this level. The one Goddess ringed by the powers of the water-centre.
Śrī Vidyā: Bandhinyādi-samanvitā is accompanied by the śaktis Bandhinī etc.; the six attendant powers of the Svādhiṣṭhāna's six petals, about the Kākinī.
512. दध्यन्नासक्तहृदया — Dadhyannāsakta-hṛdayā
Translation: Whose heart is drawn to dadhyanna (curd-rice).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her heart is fond of dadhyanna, curd-rice. The apavāda, as with the other foods: the offering marks the savour of devotion at this centre — the cooling curd-rice fitting the water-level. What her heart is “drawn to” is the devotion offered here. (This is the five-hundredth name — the midpoint of the thousand, fittingly a name of the Goddess's tender attachment to her devotees' simple offering.)
Śrī Vidyā: Dadhyannāsakta-hṛdayā is fond of curd-rice; the offering-food of the Kākinī at the Svādhiṣṭhāna — and, as the 500th name, the midpoint of the thousand.
513. काकिनीरूपधारिणी — Kākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī
Translation: Who bears the form of Kākinī (presiding at the Svādhiṣṭhāna).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The fourth Yoginī named: she is Kākinī, presiding power of the Svādhiṣṭhāna. The apavāda: as before, Kākinī is the one Goddess “bearing the form” of the ruler of the water-centre — the supreme reality assuming this name and form; “Kākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī” gathers the section's details into the single presiding power. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the water-centre. (Note rūpa-dhāriṇī, “form-bearer” — she who freely assumes the form, as Kāma-rūpiṇī wills her shapes.)
Śrī Vidyā: Kākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī is the Goddess bearing the form of Kākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Svādhiṣṭhāna; the fourth of the seven, the one Śakti in her water-centre form.
Śloka 106
मूलाधाराम्बुजारूढा पञ्च-वक्त्राऽस्थि-संस्थिता ।
अङ्कुशादि-प्रहरणा वरदादि-निषेविता ॥ १०६॥
mūlādhārāmbujārūḍhā pañca-vaktrā'sthi-saṃsthitā |
aṅkuśādi-praharaṇā varadādi-niṣevitā ǁ 106 ǁ
The procession descends to the foundation, the Mūlādhāra, the root-centre at the base, the place of earth, where the Goddess presides as Sākinī. Five-faced now, abiding in the bone, armed with the goad and other weapons, attended by the śaktis Varadā and the rest; and (in the next śloka) fond of millet-rice — the Goddess at the root of the embodied being, the foundation of the whole ascent.
514. मूलाधाराम्बुजारूढा — Mūlādhārāmbujārūḍhā
Translation: Mounted upon the Mūlādhāra lotus (the root-centre).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is established on the Mūlādhāra, the root-lotus — the foundation-centre, seat of earth, where the kuṇḍalinī lay coiled (recall Mūlādhāraika-nilayā, Kula-kuṇḍālayā). The apavāda: the root-centre is the base, the foundation of the whole subtle structure and the seat of the dormant power; she “is mounted” there as the ruling awareness of the foundation — present at the very root as fully as at the crown. The fifth station: the Goddess at the root.
Śrī Vidyā: Mūlādhārāmbujārūḍhā is established on the Mūlādhāra (root) cakra, the four-petalled centre of earth; presided by Sākinī, the seat of the coiled power.
515. पञ्चवक्त्रा — Pañca-vaktrā
Translation: Pañca-vaktrā — five-faced (like the five faces of Sadāśiva).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is five-faced here — as the five faces of Sadāśiva. The apavāda: the faces have multiplied through the ascent (one, two, three, four, and now five), the fullest count before the brow and crown; the five faces may be read as the five elements or the five acts (pañca-kṛtya). At the root-centre, the articulation of power reaches the five-fold, mirroring the five faces of the Lord — she and he, once more, of one form.
Śrī Vidyā: Pañca-vaktrā is five-faced, like Sadāśiva; the Sākinī at the Mūlādhāra, five-faced as her iconography prescribes.
516. अस्थिसंस्थिता — Asthi-saṃsthitā
Translation: Established in the bone (asthi) — governs the skeletal tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the asthi, the bone — the fifth tissue. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the root-centre presides over the bone, the body's hard framework, its very skeleton; the Goddess is present in the bone, the most solid and enduring of the tissues (recall skin, blood, flesh, fat) — pervading even the skeleton of the embodied being. The teaching holds: there is no part of the body, however gross or hidden, that is not she.
Śrī Vidyā: Asthi-saṃsthitā presides over the bone (the fifth dhātu); the Sākinī governing the skeletal tissue, the Goddess in the body's framework.
517. अङ्कुशादिप्रहरणा — Aṅkuśādi-praharaṇā
Translation: Whose weapons are the goad (aṅkuśa) and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears the aṅkuśa, the goad, and other weapons. The apavāda: the goad is the instrument that draws and controls (recall the goad among her weapons in the opening dhyāna — the goad of attraction); at the root-centre, the goad is the power that draws the dormant energy upward, that hooks and lifts the coiled Śakti into her ascent. The arms here are the powers that initiate the rising. (The goad that drives the elephant is the grace that drives the seeker Godward.)
Śrī Vidyā: Aṅkuśādi-praharaṇā wields the goad and other weapons; the Sākinī's arms at the Mūlādhāra, the goad that draws the coiled power upward.
518. वरदादिनिषेविता — Varadādi-niṣevitā
Translation: Attended by the śaktis Varadā and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is attended by the śaktis Varadā (“boon-giver”) and the others of the root-cakra's band. The apavāda: the attendant powers here are the four śaktis of the Mūlādhāra's four petals; her own energies arrayed about her at the foundation. The one Goddess ringed by the powers of the root-centre — and fittingly, one of them is Varadā, the boon-giver, for the ascent begins in grace.
Śrī Vidyā: Varadādi-niṣevitā is attended by the śaktis Varadā etc.; the four attendant powers of the Mūlādhāra's four petals, about the Sākinī.
Śloka 107
मुद्गौदनासक्त-चित्ता साकिन्यम्बा-स्वरूपिणी ।
आज्ञा-चक्राब्ज-निलया शुक्लवर्णा षडानना ॥ १०७॥
mudgaudanāsakta-cittā sākinyambā-svarūpiṇī |
ājñā-cakrābja-nilayā śukla-varṇā ṣaḍ-ānanā ǁ 107 ǁ
This śloka completes the Sākinī of the root-centre and at once opens the Ājñā, the centre between the brows, the place of command, where the Goddess presides as Hākinī — white of hue and six-faced. The ascent now nears its summit, having risen through earth, water, fire, air, and ether to the centre of pure command and inner vision.
519. मुद्गौदनासक्तचित्ता — Mudgaudanāsakta-cittā
Translation: Whose mind is fond of mudgaudana (rice cooked with green gram).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her mind is fond of mudgaudana, rice cooked with green gram (mung). The apavāda, as with the other foods: the offering marks the savour of devotion at the root-centre; the simple, wholesome dish fitting the foundation. What her mind is “fond of” is the devotion offered here. The foods, across the centres, are the varied savours of a single love.
Śrī Vidyā: Mudgaudana-āsakta-cittā is fond of green-gram rice; the offering-food of the Sākinī at the Mūlādhāra.
520. साकिन्यम्बास्वरूपिणी — Sākinyambā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Who is of the very form of Mother Sākinī (presiding at the Mūlādhāra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The fifth Yoginī named: she is Sākinī, presiding power of the Mūlādhāra. The apavāda: as before, Sākinī is the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the root-centre — “Sākinyambā-svarūpiṇī” gathers the foundation-section's details into the single presiding Mother. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the root.
Śrī Vidyā: Sākinyambā-svarūpiṇī is the Goddess as Mother Sākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Mūlādhāra; the fifth of the seven, the one Śakti in her root-centre form.
521. आज्ञाचक्राब्जनिलया — Ājñā-cakrābja-nilayā
Translation: Whose abode is the Ājñā cakra lotus (between the brows).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She dwells in the Ājñā, the centre between the brows — the place of command (ājñā) and of the inner eye (recall Ājñā-cakrāntarālasthā, Part V). The apavāda: the brow-centre is the seat of the inner command and of direct vision, where the discriminating insight rules; she dwells there as the ruling awareness of this near-summit level — the command-centre, where the will and the inner sight are one. The sixth station: the Goddess at the brow.
Śrī Vidyā: Ājñā-cakrābja-nilayā resides in the Ājñā (brow) cakra, the two-petalled centre of command and inner vision; presided by Hākinī.
522. शुक्लवर्णा — Śukla-varṇā
Translation: Of white (śukla) colour.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her colour here is white. The apavāda: as the ascent nears the summit, the hue grows pure — white, the colour of clarity, of purity, of the moon and of pure sattva (recall the autumn moon, the cleared mind); the Goddess as the clear, pure radiance at the brow-centre. The colours have moved toward light as the centres rose: red, dark, red, gold, and now white — toward the all-colour of the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Śukla-varṇā is of white hue; the meditative colour of the Hākinī-Yoginī at the Ājñā, the pure white of the near-summit centre.
523. षडानना — Ṣaḍ-ānanā
Translation: Six-faced (ṣaḍ-ānana).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is six-faced here. The apavāda: the faces reach six (as Skanda, the six-faced) — the fullest count, marking the near-complete articulation of power at the brow; the six faces may be read as the six directions or the six cakras now surveyed. At the threshold of the crown, the differentiation is near its fullest — about to resolve into the all-faced totality of the summit.
Śrī Vidyā: Ṣaḍ-ānanā is six-faced (like Skanda); the Hākinī at the Ājñā, six-faced as her iconography prescribes.
Śloka 108
मज्जासंस्था हंसवती-मुख्यशक्ति-समन्विता ।
हरिद्रान्नैक-रसिका हाकिनी-रूप-धारिणी ॥ १०८॥
majjā-saṃsthā haṃsavatī-mukhya-śakti-samanvitā |
haridrānnaika-rasikā hākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī ǁ 108 ǁ
524. मज्जासंस्था — Majjā-saṃsthā
Translation: Established in the marrow (majjā) — governs the marrow-tissue.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the majjā, the marrow — the sixth tissue, hidden deep within the bone. The apavāda: the Yoginī of the brow-centre presides over the marrow, the innermost, most hidden of the tissues — fittingly, for the brow is the centre of the inmost vision; the Goddess is present even in the marrow, the deepest recess of the body (recall skin, blood, flesh, fat, bone). She abides in the very marrow — there is no depth of the embodied being she does not pervade.
Śrī Vidyā: Majjā-saṃsthā presides over the marrow (the sixth dhātu); the Hākinī governing the marrow-tissue, the Goddess in the body's innermost substance.
525. हंसवतीमुख्यशक्तिसमन्विता — Haṃsavatī-mukhya-śakti-samanvitā
Translation: Accompanied by the chief śaktis Haṃsavatī and the rest.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is accompanied by the chief śaktis — Haṃsavatī and the other (at the Ājñā, the two śaktis of its two petals). The apavāda: the attendant powers here are the two śaktis of the brow-cakra's two petals — Haṃsavatī (“she of the haṃsa,” the swan, the breath, recall Haṃsinī) chief among them; her own energies, here reduced to a near-unity (only two) as the manifold draws toward the singleness of the crown. The powers grow fewer as the ascent nears the One.
Śrī Vidyā: Haṃsavatī-mukhya-śakti-samanvitā is accompanied by the chief śaktis (Haṃsavatī etc.); the two attendant powers of the Ājñā's two petals, about the Hākinī.
526. हरिद्रान्नैकरसिका — Haridrānnaika-rasikā
Translation: Who relishes haridrānna (turmeric-rice) above all.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She relishes haridrānna, turmeric-rice (golden rice). The apavāda, as with the other foods: the offering marks the savour of devotion at the brow-centre; the golden turmeric-rice, auspicious and pure, fitting this near-summit level. What she relishes is the devotion offered here. (Turmeric, the auspicious golden spice, fits the threshold of the crown.)
Śrī Vidyā: Haridrānnaika-rasikā relishes turmeric-rice; the offering-food of the Hākinī at the Ājñā.
527. हाकिनीरूपधारिणी — Hākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī
Translation: Who bears the form of Hākinī (presiding at the Ājñā).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The sixth Yoginī named: she is Hākinī, presiding power of the Ājñā. The apavāda: as before, Hākinī is the one Goddess bearing the form of the ruler of the brow-centre — “Hākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī” gathers the section's details into the single presiding power. The Goddess as the Yoginī of the brow, the last before the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Hākinī-rūpa-dhāriṇī is the Goddess bearing the form of Hākinī, presiding Yoginī of the Ājñā; the sixth of the seven, the one Śakti in her brow-centre form.
Śloka 109
सहस्रदल-पद्मस्था सर्व-वर्णोप-शोभिता ।
सर्वायुधधरा शुक्ल-संस्थिता सर्वतोमुखी ॥ १०९॥
sahasradala-padmasthā sarva-varṇopa-śobhitā |
sarvāyudha-dharā śukla-saṃsthitā sarvato-mukhī ǁ 109 ǁ
The ascent reaches its summit: the sahasrāra, the thousand-petalled lotus at the crown, where the Goddess presides as Yākinī. Here the differentiation of the lower centres resolves into totality — she is radiant with all colours, bears all weapons, faces all directions, governs the seed-essence (śukla), and favours all foods: the “Sarva-” (“all”) returns, for at the crown the many are gathered back into the all. The seven Yoginīs were the one Goddess at the seven levels; here, at the summit, she is named simply as the All.
528. सहस्रदलपद्मस्था — Sahasradala-padmasthā
Translation: Who is seated on the thousand-petalled lotus (sahasra-dala-padma) at the crown.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is seated on the thousand-petalled lotus — the sahasrāra at the crown (recall Sahasrārāmbujārūḍhā, where the kuṇḍalinī's ascent culminated, Part V). The apavāda: the crown-lotus is the summit, the seat of Śiva, where the risen power is united with its ground; she “is seated” there as the supreme awareness at the highest station — the consummation of the whole ascent. The seventh and final station: the Goddess at the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Sahasradala-padmasthā is seated on the thousand-petalled lotus (sahasrāra) at the crown; presided by Yākinī, the summit of the ascent, seat of Śiva-Śakti union.
529. सर्ववर्णोपशोभिता — Sarva-varṇopa-śobhitā
Translation: Radiant with all colours (sarva-varṇa).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is radiant with all colours. The apavāda: where each lower Yoginī had her single hue (red, dark, red, gold, white), the Yoginī of the crown shines with all colours together — the white light of the summit containing all the colours, as the manifold is gathered into the one at the crown (recall the petals' thousand). The “all-coloured” marks the return of totality: every hue of the ascent united in the crown's radiance. (And varṇa is also “letter” — she is adorned with all the letters, the whole alphabet, the mātṛkā, recall Mālinī.)
Śrī Vidyā: Sarva-varṇopa-śobhitā is radiant with all colours (and all letters, varṇa); the Yākinī at the sahasrāra, where the single hues of the lower centres unite — the all-coloured summit.
530. सर्वायुधधरा — Sarvāyudha-dharā
Translation: Bearing all weapons (sarva-āyudha).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She bears all weapons. The apavāda: where each lower Yoginī bore particular arms (skull-staff, fangs, thunderbolt, trident, goad), the Yoginī of the crown bears all of them together — the totality of the dissolving powers gathered at the summit; she holds every instrument of liberation at once. The “all-armed” marks, again, the return of totality at the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Sarvāyudha-dharā bears all weapons; the Yākinī at the sahasrāra, holding the totality of the powers borne severally by the lower Yoginīs.
531. शुक्लसंस्थिता — Śukla-saṃsthitā
Translation: Established in the śukla (the seed-essence / the white vital essence — the seventh dhātu).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She governs the śukla — the seventh and final tissue, the vital seed-essence (śukra), the subtlest distillation of the body. The apavāda: the seven Yoginīs have presided over the seven tissues in ascending subtlety — skin, blood, flesh, fat, bone, marrow, and now the seed-essence, the finest and most potent, the very sap of life; the Goddess pervades even this, the subtlest bodily substance, the distilled essence (recall the whole series: she is in every tissue). At the crown, she governs the essence of the body as she governs the essence of all. The “white” (śukla) also rejoins the white of the brow and the all-colour of the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Śukla-saṃsthitā presides over the śukla, the seed-essence (the seventh and subtlest dhātu); the Yākinī governing the vital essence, the finest distillation of the body.
532. सर्वतोमुखी — Sarvato-mukhī
Translation: All-faced (facing in every direction — sarvataḥ-mukha).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “all-faced” — facing every direction at once. The apavāda: where the lower Yoginīs had one, two, three, four, five, six faces in ascending count, the Yoginī of the crown is all-faced — the faces gathered into omnifaciality, looking everywhere, seeing all (recall Sahasra-śīrṣa-vadanā, the cosmic form). The progression of faces (1→2→3→4→5→6→all) reaches its term: at the summit, she faces all ways, for she is the all. The differentiation of the ascent resolves into the total vision of the crown.
Śrī Vidyā: Sarvato-mukhī is all-faced, facing every direction; the Yākinī at the sahasrāra, the culmination of the ascending count of faces — the omnifacial totality of the summit.
Śloka 110
सर्वौदन-प्रीतचित्ता याकिन्यम्बा-स्वरूपिणी ।
स्वाहा स्वधाऽमतिर् मेधा श्रुतिः स्मृतिर् अनुत्तमा ॥ ११०॥
sarvaudana-prīta-cittā yākinyambā-svarūpiṇī |
svāhā svadhā'matir medhā śrutiḥ smṛtir anuttamā ǁ 110 ǁ
The crown-Yoginī, Yākinī, is named — fond of all foods, the totality at the summit — and the long procession of the seven closes. The ascent that began at the throat ends at the crown, the one Goddess having been met at every level of the embodied being, in flesh and blood and bone and the subtlest essence, no less herself in the lowest tissue than on the thousand-petalled lotus. The śloka then turns to the sacred utterances of offering — Svāhā (for the gods) and Svadhā (for the ancestors) — and to the powers of mind: understanding, intelligence, the heard scripture and the remembered, and the unsurpassed.
533. सर्वौदनप्रीतचित्ता — Sarvaudana-prīta-cittā
Translation: Whose heart delights in all kinds of cooked food (sarva-odana).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: Her heart delights in all foods. The apavāda: where each lower Yoginī favoured a particular dish (milk-rice, ghee-rice, jaggery-rice, curd-rice, green-gram-rice, turmeric-rice), the Yoginī of the crown delights in all of them together — the totality of offerings gathered at the summit; she relishes every offering, for at the crown all the savours of devotion are one. The “all-food” completes the “Sarva-” return: all colours, all weapons, all faces, all foods. Every particular love, gathered into the one.
Śrī Vidyā: Sarvaudana-prīta-cittā delights in all foods; the Yākinī at the sahasrāra, relishing the totality of offerings — the gathering of all the lower Yoginīs' particular foods into the all.
534. याकिन्यम्बास्वरूपिणी — Yākinyambā-svarūpiṇī
Translation: Who is of the very form of Mother Yākinī (presiding at the sahasrāra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The seventh and final Yoginī named: she is Yākinī, presiding power of the sahasrāra. The apavāda: Yākinī is the one Goddess in her form as ruler of the crown — and being of the summit, she is the most comprehensive, the all-coloured, all-armed, all-faced, all-relishing totality; “Yākinyambā-svarūpiṇī” gathers not only the crown-section but the whole procession into the single presiding Mother. The seven Yoginīs — Ḍākinī, Rākiṇī, Lākinī, Kākinī, Sākinī, Hākinī, Yākinī — were never seven deities but the one Goddess met at the seven levels of the embodied being; here, at the crown, the procession resolves into her, the All. (The seven names, it is said, together yield her secret syllables.)
Śrī Vidyā: Yākinyambā-svarūpiṇī is the Goddess as Mother Yākinī, presiding Yoginī of the sahasrāra; the seventh and culminating Yoginī, in whom the whole procession resolves — the seven Yoginīs being one Śakti at the seven centres.
535. स्वाहा — Svāhā
Translation: Svāhā — the sacred exclamation of oblation to the gods.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Svāhā — the utterance with which oblations are offered into the fire for the gods. The apavāda: after the cakra-ascent, the hymn turns to the sacred utterances of offering; she is Svāhā, the very word that conveys the offering to the divine — and so the power by which every sacrifice reaches its end. She is the offering's efficacy, the “so be it” that completes the oblation. (The fire that receives is hers — the inner fire of the centres just ascended.)
Śrī Vidyā: Svāhā is the sacred exclamation of oblation to the gods; the Goddess as the conveying power of the offering, the consort of Agni in the fire-rite.
536. स्वधा — Svadhā
Translation: Svadhā — the sacred exclamation of oblation to the ancestors (pitṛs).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Svadhā — the utterance with which oblations are offered to the ancestors (pitṛs). The apavāda: as Svāhā conveys the offering to the gods, Svadhā conveys it to the forefathers; she is both — the power by which every offering, to gods or ancestors, reaches its recipient. The two utterances together name her as the efficacy of all oblation, upward and back. She is the sacred word that makes the offering effective.
Śrī Vidyā: Svadhā is the sacred exclamation of oblation to the ancestors; the Goddess as the conveying power of the offering to the pitṛs, paired with Svāhā for the gods.
537. अमतिः — Amatiḥ
Translation: Amati — (read as a-mati) the state beyond discursive thought; or (as the context of mati) understanding itself.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: The name is read in two ways. As a-mati: she is “beyond mati,” beyond discursive thought — the awareness prior to the thinking mind (recall Mano-vācām-agocarā). As amati joined to the following Medhā: she is the very power of understanding. The apavāda holds both: she is both the understanding by which we think and that which is beyond all thinking — the ground of mind that mind cannot reach, and the light by which mind operates. (Commentators differ on the parsing; the non-dual sense embraces both.)
Śrī Vidyā: Amatiḥ is read as the state beyond discursive thought (a-mati) or as understanding (amati/mati); the Goddess as both the ground beyond mind and the power of comprehension.
538. मेधा — Medhā
Translation: Medhā — intelligence, retentive wisdom; the power of comprehension.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Medhā — intelligence, especially the retentive, grasping power of wisdom. The apavāda: medhā is the keen, retaining intellect (recall Mati, Mahā-buddhi); she is that power of comprehension — the light of awareness lending the intellect its grasp, the very faculty of understanding personified. (Medhā is also the goddess of intelligence, here a face of the one Goddess.)
Śrī Vidyā: Medhā is intelligence and retentive wisdom; the Goddess as the power of comprehension, and the deity Medhā, a face of the one Śakti.
539. श्रुतिः — Śrutiḥ
Translation: Śruti — the revealed scripture (the Veda, “that which is heard”).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Śruti — the revealed Veda, “that which is heard,” the eternal sacred sound. The apavāda: as the Veda is her command (Nijājñā-rūpa-nigamā) and her child (Veda-jananī), she is the śruti itself — the heard revelation, the eternal Word in its revealed form (recall Nāda-rūpā). She is the scripture that reveals her, being its very substance.
Śrī Vidyā: Śrutiḥ is the revealed Veda (“that which is heard”); the Goddess as the eternal śruti, the heard revelation.
540. स्मृतिः — Smṛtiḥ
Translation: Smṛti — the remembered scripture (the tradition); and memory itself.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Smṛti — the remembered tradition (the secondary scriptures), and memory itself. The apavāda: as śruti is the heard, smṛti is the remembered — the tradition derived from revelation; and smṛti is also memory, the power of retention by which knowledge is held. She is both the remembered scripture and the very faculty of memory — that which holds, and that which is held. (Memory, deepest, is the recollection of one's own true nature — the Self remembering itself.)
Śrī Vidyā: Smṛtiḥ is the remembered scripture (the smṛti tradition) and memory itself; the Goddess as both the derived scripture and the power of recollection.
541. अनुत्तमा — Anuttamā
Translation: Anuttamā — the unsurpassed, than whom there is none higher.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Anuttamā — “than whom there is no higher,” the unsurpassed. The apavāda: an-uttama, “not-surpassed,” names her as the supreme, the highest, beyond which there is nothing greater (recall Samānādhika-varjitā, Nirupamā, Parameśvarī) — the absolute summit, fittingly closing the section that ascended to the crown. There is none above her, for she is the All, met now at the very top of the ascent. The procession of the centres ends in the unsurpassed.
Śrī Vidyā: Anuttamā is the unsurpassed, the supreme; the Goddess than whom there is none higher — fittingly closing the cakra-ascent at the crown.
Part XV — Nāmas 542–589 (Ślokas 111–118): Holiness, the Mirror of Awareness, and the Three Vidyās
In simple words. Holiness and the mirror. She is the pure mirror in which awareness sees itself. Three forms of sacred knowledge (vidyā) are named. Knowledge here is not information; it is the Self knowing the Self.
Śloka 111
पुण्यकीर्तिः पुण्यलभ्या पुण्यश्रवण-कीर्तना ।
पुलोमजार्चिता बन्ध-मोचनी बर्बरालका ॥ १११॥
puṇya-kīrtiḥ puṇya-labhyā puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanā |
pulomajārcitā bandha-mocanī barbarālakā ǁ 111 ǁ
After the cakra-ascent and its close, the hymn turns to holiness (puṇya) — the merit by which she is known, attained, and made present in the very hearing and telling of her names. Three names ring the changes on puṇya, then she is named as worshipped by Indra's queen, the loosener of every bond, and (in a reading-variant) the curly-haired. The thread is grace through merit: the holiness that both leads to her and is awakened by her remembrance.
542. पुण्यकीर्तिः — Puṇya-kīrtiḥ
Translation: Of holy renown (puṇya-kīrti); whose fame is itself meritorious.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of holy fame” — her very renown is puṇya, merit-bearing. The apavāda: to be famed is ordinarily to be an object of others' praise; but her “fame” is holy because hearing it purifies — the renown of the Self is not vanity but the sacred report that turns the hearer Godward. Her glory (recall Yaśasvinī) is sanctifying glory.
Śrī Vidyā: Puṇya-kīrtiḥ is of holy, sanctifying renown; the Goddess whose very fame confers merit on those who hear it.
543. पुण्यलभ्या — Puṇya-labhyā
Translation: Attainable (labhyā) only through merit (puṇya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “attained through merit” — reached only by the accumulated good of many turnings toward the true. The apavāda: she is not bought or seized but received, and the “merit” that earns her is finally the purified heart's readiness (recall Sadyaḥ-prasādinī, the swiftly gracious) — grace meets the merit that is itself her gift. She is had by those whom holiness has prepared.
Śrī Vidyā: Puṇya-labhyā is attained through merit; the Goddess won by the ripened puṇya of the seeker, herself the giver of that ripening.
544. पुण्यश्रवणकीर्तना — Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanā
Translation: The hearing (śravaṇa) and singing (kīrtana) of whom is itself merit (puṇya).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: To hear of her and to sing her is itself puṇya — the very listening and reciting are holy acts. The apavāda: this names the power of the hymn itself — the thousand names are not a list to be learned but a sacred sound whose hearing purifies (recall the Veda as her command); to recite her is already to be sanctified, for the Name is not other than the Named. The remembrance of her is the merit it requires.
Śrī Vidyā: Puṇya-śravaṇa-kīrtanā is she the hearing and singing of whom is meritorious; the sanctifying power of the hymn and the Name themselves.
545. पुलोमजार्चिता — Pulomajārcitā
Translation: Worshipped by Pulomajā (Śacī, the consort of Indra).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is worshipped by Pulomajā — Śacī, the daughter of Puloman, queen of Indra. The apavāda, as with her other divine worshippers (Hari, Brahmā, Indra at her feet): the highest of the celestial consorts adores her — even the queen of heaven is her devotee; the divine powers and their consorts alike worship the one reality of which they are faces. Her worshippers are the gods and their queens.
Śrī Vidyā: Pulomajārcitā is worshipped by Pulomajā (Indra's queen Śacī); the Goddess adored by the queen of the gods.
546. बन्धमोचनी — Bandha-mocanī
Translation: The loosener of bondage (bandha) — who frees from saṃsāra.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She looses the bond — frees from the bondage of saṃsāra. The apavāda: the “bond” is the knot of ignorance and its self-sense, the same pāśa she cut as Paśu-pāśa-vimocinī; she “looses bondage” by the rising of knowledge, in which the bound self discovers it was never truly tied (recall Bhava-cchidā, the cutter of becoming). The Vidyā about to be named (Ātma-vidyā) is the very loosening; she frees by being known.
Śrī Vidyā: Bandha-mocanī is the loosener of bondage; the Goddess who frees the jīva from the bonds of saṃsāra, by the knowledge that is herself.
547. बर्बरालका — Barbarālakā
Translation: Of curly, wavy locks (barbara-alaka); (variant: Bandhurālakā, of lovely curls).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of curly locks” — wavy-haired (a reading also given as bandhurālakā, “of lovely curls”). The apavāda: a touch of the beautiful form (recall Nīla-cikurā, the dark hair) set among the loftiest names — the loveliness of the curling hair, enjoyed as the grace of her appearing; even amid the names of holiness and bondage-loosening, the tender beauty of the form is not forgotten.
Śrī Vidyā: Barbarālakā is of curly, wavy locks (variant Bandhurālakā, of lovely curls); a feature of the Goddess's beautiful form.
Śloka 112
विमर्शरूपिणी विद्या वियदादि-जगत्प्रसूः ।
सर्वव्याधि-प्रशमनी सर्वमृत्यु-निवारिणी ॥ ११२॥
vimarśa-rūpiṇī vidyā viyad-ādi-jagat-prasūḥ |
sarva-vyādhi-praśamanī sarva-mṛtyu-nivāriṇī ǁ 112 ǁ
This śloka opens with a name at the very centre of the Śrī-Vidyā and Pratyabhijñā vision — Vimarśa-rūpiṇī. The supreme reality has two inseparable aspects: prakāśa, the pure light of consciousness (the side named in Prakāśa-, Prabhā-rūpā), and vimarśa, the reflective self-awareness by which that light knows itself as “I.” Śiva is prakāśa; Śakti is vimarśa — and she is named here as vimarśa itself, the self-knowing of the Absolute, without which the light would shine unaware. She is then Knowledge, the womb of the worlds, and the queller of all disease and death.
548. विमर्शरूपिणी — Vimarśa-rūpiṇī
Translation: Whose form is vimarśa — the reflective self-awareness of the Absolute.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is “of the form of vimarśa” — the supreme self-awareness. The apavāda: consciousness is not a bare, inert light; it is luminous and self-aware — and vimarśa is that self-awareness, the “turning back” of the light upon itself by which it knows “I am.” Where prakāśa (Śiva) is the shining, vimarśa (Śakti) is the shining's knowing-of-itself; the two are one reality, as a light and its self-luminosity. She is named as vimarśa: the Self's own self-knowing — that without which the Absolute would be light unaware of itself, and by which it is the living “I” at the root of every “I.” (This is the Pratyabhijñā and Śrī-Vidyā heart: the supreme “I”-awareness, aham, is the Goddess.)
Śrī Vidyā: Vimarśa-rūpiṇī is the form of vimarśa, the reflective self-awareness of the Absolute; the Śakti-pole (self-knowing) inseparable from the Śiva-pole (prakāśa, the light) — the supreme “I,” heart of the Śrī Vidyā.
549. विद्या — Vidyā
Translation: Vidyā — Knowledge itself; the liberating wisdom.
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is Vidyā — Knowledge, the liberating wisdom (named again, after Siddha-vidyā, in a single word). The apavāda: vidyā is the knowing that frees, as distinct from avidyā that binds (recall Vidyāvidyā-svarūpiṇī, where she was both); here she is named as the liberating knowledge itself — and since she is also vimarśa, the self-awareness, the “knowledge” that frees is finally the Self's recognition of itself as her. She is the Vidyā that the three great Vidyās (Ātma-, Mahā-, Śrī-, to come) will name in full.
Śrī Vidyā: Vidyā is Knowledge itself, the liberating wisdom; the Goddess as the vidyā that frees — anticipating the three Vidyās of śloka 118.
550. वियदादिजगत्प्रसूः — Viyad-ādi-jagat-prasūḥ
Translation: The womb/mother (prasū) of the world (jagat) beginning with space (viyat).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She is the womb of the world, beginning with viyat, space (ether) — the first of the five elements. The apavāda: from her the whole graded manifestation unfolds, ether first, then air, fire, water, earth (the order of cosmic emanation); she is jagat-prasū, the mother who brings forth the worlds (recall Sṛṣṭi-kartrī, Jananī) — yet, as the unmanifest root (Mūla-prakṛti) and self-aware light (Vimarśa-rūpiṇī), she brings them forth not as other than herself but as her own self-display. The cosmos is her offspring and her own form.
Śrī Vidyā: Viyad-ādi-jagat-prasūḥ is the mother of the world from space onward; the Goddess as the womb of the five elements and all that follows, the source of cosmic manifestation.
551. सर्वव्याधिप्रशमनी — Sarva-vyādhi-praśamanī
Translation: The queller (praśamanī) of all diseases (sarva-vyādhi).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She quiets all disease. The apavāda: beyond bodily ills, the “great disease” is saṃsāra itself — the fever of birth and death, the sickness of the separate self (the tradition calls it bhava-roga); she is its healer (recall Bhava-cchidā), quelling the root-malady by the knowledge that ends it. She cures all ills because she removes the one ill of which the rest are symptoms: the forgetting of the Self.
Śrī Vidyā: Sarva-vyādhi-praśamanī quells all diseases; the Goddess who heals both bodily ills and the great disease of saṃsāra (bhava-roga).
552. सर्वमृत्युनिवारिणी — Sarva-mṛtyu-nivāriṇī
Translation: The warder-off (nivāriṇī) of all death (sarva-mṛtyu).
Adhyāropa–Apavāda: She wards off all death. The apavāda: as Mṛtyu-mathanī, the death-churner, she conquers death — and the deathlessness she gives is not endless duration but the recognition of the deathless Self, which was never born and so cannot die (recall Nitya, the deathless). She “wards off death” by revealing that what one truly is has no death to be warded; the fear of death ends when the Self is known as her, the ever-living.
Śrī Vidyā: Sarva-mṛtyu-nivāriṇī wards off all death; the Goddess who conquers death by the knowledge of the deathless Self — the giver of amṛtatva.
Part XV continues in Article 12.
Śrī Lalitā Sahasranāma — Article 11 of 20 · Nāmas 499–552.
Devanagari per the sanskritdocuments.org recension (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, Uttarakhaṇḍa; Hayagrīva–Agastya saṃvāda); numbering per the Bhāskararāya canonical 1000-count. Transliteration, translation, and commentary original to this edition.
